YOU’RE BACK IN THE ROOM, STV, 8.30pm
Clearly we’re sensible people so would never countenance watching Saturday night game shows on ITV. And yet here we are, and I can honestly say You’re Back In The Room is funny and entertaining: it’s all those things Saturday night TV used to be about in the wholesome days before talent shows and ratings wars took over.
The new series starts tonight of this hypnosis-based game show presented by Philip Schofield where a group of five complete strangers have to work together in various challenges to win a cash prize. However, International Mentalist (that’s quite a job title!) Keith Barry puts them under hypnosis so they will “unwittingly sabotage their chances”.
One of their tasks tonight is to subject the panel of Loose Women to a pampering session. You’d have to be under strict mind control to want to massage that troupe of loud, unbearable women, but the real challenge comes from the various roles the hypnotised contestants have adopted: one thinks she is a cosmetic surgeon, one is made to believe he’s in howling pain whenever he pulls off a wax strip, and another believes the Loose Women have foul body odour.
Yes it’s silly but it’s simple family entertainment which is what Saturday night TV should deliver.
STAG, BBC1, 9pm
Surely, this three-part comedy thriller could have been compressed into two episodes? It opens with yet more scenes of dopey little Ian stumbling through the woods and the exhausted little group gathering in clearings to debate what to do.
Ledge is acting like a tough man because he’s found a flare gun and Ian has a new plan that they follow a network of electricity pylons in the hope it’ll lead them to civilisation or, at least, a power plant.
But there will be no flare gun rescues or power plant trips because the groom finally speaks up and declares he’s tired of fleeing.
He wants one brave last stand before he meets either death or marriage: “I came here to hunt and that is exactly what I’m gonna do!” So the dull man in the flimsy pink costume wants to find their hunter – and kill him.
The person who’s hunting them looks like a Dulux dog on a quad bike. It’s an absurd image but the absurdity serves to remind us this is a comedy, albeit a repetitive and not very funny one.
INDIAN SUMMERS, C4, 9pm
It’s March 1935 and the new series opens with a “strike for freedom” against the British Empire.
There’s a festival taking place in the streets and three young rascals push and shove through the crowds. They run along the hot streets, laughing, but round the corner the viceroy is slowly making his way in an elegant car. A collision is surely inevitable? One of these boys will be crushed by the car and it’ll be a symbol, if a tad simplistic, of the British Raj stamping on India. But no – let’s give the writers more credit; as the car nudges its way through the crowd one of the boys runs alongside and lobs a hand grenade into the back seat.
This act of terror has been well-timed, say the anxious Brits. Westminster is being awfully nice in granting India some powers, but with this attack: “They want to say to the world ‘India rejects this bill. India wants freedom on her own terms or not at all’.”
And up at The Royal Simla Club, Cynthia (Julie Walters) starts plotting. The grenade attack gave the viceroy a small heart attack – reasonable, given that he is the possessor of a “small heart” – and she urges Ralph to exploit this and grab power. “This is your chance, my darling. Take it, take it, take it!”
HOUDINI AND DOYLE, STV, 10.15pm
Houdini and Doyle are trapped in a sewer under the Thames. Then we reel back three days to find out how our intrepid lads came to be there.
This new series is typical Sunday-night ITV: it’s jovial, high-spirited and elaborately costumed. It seems to have learned a lesson from a previous ITV Sunday night show of the same ilk, Jekyll and Hyde, which was subject to lots of complaints for being far too scary for early evening. You’ll see blood and violence here, but at the respectable hour of 10.15pm. You’ll also see Houdini and Doyle getting into, and getting out of, various scrapes.
Starring Stephen Mangan, Michael Weston and Tim McInerney, it’s a historical murder mystery which brings Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini together to solve supernatural crimes. Tonight’s case is about a nun seemingly murdered by a ghost.
Annoyingly, if you like this and want to view the rest of the series, you’ll have to subscribe to ITV Encore as that’s where it’ll live for the remainder of its run. Tonight it’s being simulcast on terrestrial TV, plus ITV Encore, to try and entrap you.
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